What do you gain when you study International Management?

What you will gain from an International Management course is best summarized by an opening line from the article “the death of the global Manager” – “the global manager was a coveted position for many years but things have changed – now we are all global managers”. Certainly, as the Harvard Professor Bartlett contends, the world is now a different place than say a decade ago because of developments in informational technology, and the transfer of products, processes, ideas and of course people across the international boundaries. As business leaders, it has become imperative now more so than ever to understand how to operate in a global environment. 

So what did I learn?

            During the semester, I gained insights into the complexities of managing across borders and cultures. Additionally, I have understood nuances in cultural differences that might not have realized. The course provided a rigorous yet lively discussion of different issues that may arise while managing operations across borders.

            First, I understood the bird-eye view of international management including the concepts in international business such as why firms seek to expand in international business. Previously, I had this wrong notion that business expand only to seek market. Now, I understand it is not the case. The company expands not just to seek new market but also for strategic reason such as to get a competitive edge or for the cost reduction. It was also interesting to realize that international manager must not only understand economic and cultural environment of the host country but also political, legal and the technological environment. The economic environment includes concepts such as free trade area, customs union and so on. We also discussed about NAFTA as well as EU and how they are different. Issues in globalization were also discussed. The paper about Walmart bribery case in Mexico provided a lively discussion involving FCPA (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act). For the cultural environment, we learned about Hofstede’s framework. It was interesting to note how countries can be ranged in scales measuring “Individualism vs Collectivism”, “Power Distance”, “Uncertainty Avoidance”, “Masculinity vs. Femininity” and “Time Orientation”. The HKD case vividly illustrated how (mis)understanding the cultural and economic environment can affect the choices made in international business transactions. The knowledge of how the value chain of a company can be leveraged to expand internationally is very useful so as to maximize the comparative advantage of the host country in terms of risk associated, knowledge available, costs, market and source. This proved to very useful for us while doing our company project. Understanding various foreign modes of entry is also very important. I realized there are more options than simply exporting or franchising or equity based joint ventures. In the process, I gained the knowledge about counter trade, contract manufacturing, licensing, non-equity strategic alliances as well as wholly owned subsidiaries. We also had a lively discussion during the Nora-Sakari case about the proposed JV in Malaysia which drove home how the companies can negotiate when trying to achieve international partners and so did the lessons from Lincoln Electric case. Similarly, the Cristina Gold case provided yet another example about need for organizational structural changes as the company expands overseas.

            The Strategic analysis exercise involving SFAS (Strategic Factors Analysis Summary) matrix provided a quantitative approach to otherwise qualitative judgment on whether to expand the company to the target market to not. The spreadsheet was effectively used during our company project also. The Tata case (including discussion on Taj Hotel) the provided a strong case about how one company can redefine the corporate social responsibility.

Conclusion –

            In the International Management course, you will gain a holistic view on the management of company across international boundaries and cultures. Depending on your university, throughout the course, through cases, mini-cases, articles and videos, you should expect to learn various operational issues one may face including legal and intercultural issues as well as corporate social responsibility in today’s highly interconnected world. Hopefully, you will be taking part in a classroom project to gain a real world application to appreciate significance of these issues from a viewpoint of a business leader.